Ionizer



N. TRlKILlS Aug. 3, 1965 IONIZER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Dec. 20, 1960 INVENTOR. NICOLAS TRIKILIS 3 a E F A TTORNE YS BY fi s/MJ, m EA N. TRIKILIS Aug. 3, 1965 IONIZER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Dec. 20, 1960 k iii/drift 9 0 INVENTOR. NICOLAS TRIK/LIS A TTORNE YS United States Patent 3,198,726 IGNIZER Nicolas Trilrilis, Rt Box 152, Wooster, (lino Continuation of application er. No. 77,110, Dec. 20, 196i). lihis application Aug. 19, 1964, Ser. No. 390,621 21 Claims. (Cl. 2li4-320) This application is a continuation of application Serial No. 77,110, filed December 20, 1960, now abandoned.

This invention relates to an ionizer and more particularly to an ionizing unit having electrodes of such design as, when energized, will convert oxygen to ozone and to molecules of oxygen composed of more than three atoms of oxygen in substantial amounts.

Oxygen ordinarily occurs in molecular form as When it is subjected to an electrical discharge, molecules containing more than two atoms of oxygen, such as 0 which is known as ozone, are formed. There may at times also be produced heavier molecules of oxygen, such as 0 and 0 Molecules of oxygen having four or more atoms of oxygen, or in other words, 0 etc., sometimes considered as oxygen polymers, are known collectively as aran, octozone or heavy oxygen. Since ozone and aran are strong oxidizing agents, they are useful inter aha in eliminating odors and oxidizing, and thereby destroying. bacteria and fungus. This is particularly true of aran which is relatively unstable.

Prior workers in the art have, by various means, attempted to overcome the basic problem of producing sub stantial amounts of ozone without producing substantial amounts of impurities, such as oxides of nitrogen. The ionizer of this invention not only produces substantial amounts of ozone without producing appreciable amounts of impurities, but also produces substantial amounts of aran, and is substantially silent in operation.

In accordance with the present invention, the ionizer comprises an iron generator and its associated electrical components, the ion generator being removably mounted on the back side of a suitable louvered housing. The ion generator itself comprises a stainless steel casing in which is disposed a plurality of stainless steel wire mesh electrodes of flattened tubular form. The electrodes are separated from one another by sheets of mica, glass, or other suitable dielectric means. Connected to each alternate electrode, lying between the sheets of mica or glass, is one end of a stainless steel wire or bus bar wrapped about one of each electrode, whose other ends are connected together and to a source of electric potential. The outer electrodes, and the electrodes between the electrodes connected .to the source of potential, are grounded, that is, electrically connected to the sides of the casing, by stainless steel wircs wrapped about the folded ends of the electrodes and attached to the side of the casing. The source of electric potential is obtained from the secondary of a conventional transformer, the primary of which is connected to any convenient source of electric power, preferably through a rheostat which may be utilized to vary the electric potential obtained from the secondary of the transformer. When an electric potential of relatively high voltage is applied to alternate electrodes, a silent electric discharge takes place between adjacent electrodes. Since these electrodes are exposed to the atmosphere, oxygen of the atmosphere is ionized and converted to ozone and aran. The high frequency noise produced by the electric discharge is prevented from being fed back, through the source of power, to other electrical appliances, such as a radio, by a capacitor connected in parallel with the source of power.

The invention will be further described in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view, partially in elevation, taken through a small home model of ionizer embodying the present invention, looking towards the back wall thereof, and showing the various electrical compoi cuts of the ionizer mounted thereon;

FIG. 2 is a schematic electrical diagram of the ionizer shown in PEG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top view of one form of ionizing unit;

PEG. 4 is a bottom view of another form of the ionizing unit;

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view, partially in elevation, showing the various electrical components of a large industrial model of ionizer embodying the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic electrical diagram of the ionizer shown in FIG. 5.

Referring now to FIG. 1, the small home ionizer cornprises a housing It) of any suitable shape having suitable louvered openings 11. Spot welded to the back wall 12 of the housing is a vertically-extending guide 14 having tracks 14 along each side thereof. An ionizing unit or ion generator 15 is mounted on the guide 14 by means of a stainless steel runner 16, attached to one side thereof, which slides in the guide 14. In order to position the ionizing unit is at the desired height in housing 10, tracks 14 are pinched together just below the desired height of the bottom of the unit to limit downward movement of runner 16 and ionizing unit 15 relative to the guide.

The ionizing unit 15 comprises a stainless steel casing 21 which is closed at the sides but open at the top and bottom to permit free circulation of air therethrough. Inside casing 21 are disposed woven wire electrodes 22, 23 and 24. Each of these electrodes is formed of stainless steel wire of approximately 64 mesh. They have the form of flattened tubes or loops with adjacent inwardly and reversely folded ends. Each electrode is made from a single sheet of wire mesh which is folded to form a pair of flattened loops lying in edge-to-edge relationship. To this end, an elongated sheet of wire mesh is first folded transversely along lines spaced apart a distance equal to the width of one side of the electrode. The outer portions are folded in towards one another to form the second side of the electrode. At a point approximately at the longitudinal center of such second side, the end portions of the sheet are reversely folded to lie along the first side of the electrode, forming the pair of loops, as shown in FIG. 3. Each electrode is approximately one and one-half inches high, two and one-half inches wide and one-half inch deep. Sheets of natural mica 25, larger than the electrodes, are interleaved between adjacent electrodes. The electrodes frictionally engage the sheets of mica and the outer sides of the outer electrodes of the group frictionally enga e the sides of the casing. Each sheet of mica is approximately two inches high, three and one-eighth inches wide, and .064 inch thick. Since the shape of the wire mesh electrodes causes them to be somewhat resilient, they exert pressure against opposite sides of the casing 21 and the interleaved mica sheets 25, and thereby frictionally hold themselves and the mica sheets in place in the casing. To further assist in maintaining the electrodes and mica sheets in the proper position in the casing, a lip 26 extends inwardly from the bottom edge of both side walls of casing 21.

Running down the longitudinal center of the center electrode 23 is a stainless steel wire 27 which assists in binding the center folded ends of electrode 23 together.

The lower end of this stainless steel wire is connected to one side of the secondary 30 of a transformer 31. Connected to the other side of the secondary 3b is another stainless steel wire 28 whose other end is attached to the housing in any suitable manner, as by bolt 31. Wires 27 and 28 are preferably completely insulated except for their end points.

The outer electrodes 22 and 24 are connected and grounded to the sides of the casing by one end of wires 22' and 24, respectively, in any suitable manner, as by screws. .The other end of the wires are bound to the inwardly folded ends of the respective electrodes. This manner of grounding the electrodes assures that there will be an even flow of current around the electrodes contributing to the balancing of the ion generator and to the formation of substantial amounts of aran. The outer electrodes 22 and 24 are electrically connected and automatically grounded to the housing when the runner 16 of the casing is positioned in the guide 14 of the housing by wires 22' and 24', the casing, thetrack, and the guide of the housing.

When the electric circuit including the primary 32 of the transformer 31 is connected to a suitable source of electric power, such as the conventional 60 cycle, 110 volt house current, through a connector C, an electric potential appears at the primary 32 of the transformer, which potential, in turn, causes an electric potential to appear at the secondary 30. The amount of current flowing through primary 32 is controlled by the setting of a slider 33 on the resistive winding 34, of a rheostat 35 connected in the transformer circuit. The slider is set by a positioning knob 33' disposed on the outer side of housing 19, knob 33' being attached to a rod which in turn is attached to slider 33. By varying the amount of current through primary 32, the strength of the magnetic field in transformer 31 is varied, thereby varying the electric potential appearing at the secondary 30 and the quantity of ionized gas produced thereby. If desired, a fan may be suitably located in housing to force air through ionizing unit and thereby increase, to an extent, the output of ozone and aran. Should the current through primary 32 exceed a predetermined amount due to, for example, the shorting of rheostat or the ionizing unit 15, a fuse 36 connected to one side of primary 32 will open the circuit, thereby protecting the electrical components from further damage.

When the primary circuit of the transformer is connected to a source of electric power, the ionizing unit 15 will be energized by the current flow through wires 27 and 28. The potential across the ends of the secondary 30 will also exist between electrode 23, connected to wire 27, and electrodes 22 and 24 connected through the housing to wire 23. This electric potential between the electrodes causes a silent electric discharge to take place between the electrodes which is effective in converting the oxygen of the atmosphere passing through the casing 21 into substantial amounts of ozone and aran.

The silent electric discharge occurring between electrode 23 and electrodes 22 and 24 of the ionizing unit 15 will naturally result in high-frequency electrical noise which will be fed back through transformer 31 to the source of electric power for the ionizer. In order to prevent such high-frequency noise from interfering with other electrical appliances, such as a radio, connected to the same source of power, a capacitor 37 is connected between the opposite sides of the primary 32 through rheostat 34 and fuse 36, respectively.

The invention is not restricted to the use of three electrodes and any other number, from one up, preferably an odd number, may be used. FIG. 4 discloses an ionizing unit 40 including five electrodes 41, 42, 43, 44 and 45. As in the ionizing unit 15, the electrodes 41 to 45 are of stainless steel wire mesh of flattened tubular form, the same as electrodes 22, 23 and 24, and frictionally engage the sides of casing 46 and interleaved sheets 47 of natural mica to frictionally retain the unit in place within the casing. The outer two electrodes 41 and 45 and the center electrode 43 may be grounded electrically to a casing 46 by stainless steel wires 41', 45' and 48, the ends of which are each bound to the folded longitudinal center of the respective electrodes. The inter- Cit mediate electrodes 42 and 44 have stainless steel bus bars 49 looped around their longitudinal centers. These stainless steel bus bars are brought together, surrounded by insulation, and connected to the secondary 30 of transformer 31. Stainless steel bus bars rather than stainless steel wires are used in connecting the intermediate electrodes to the secondary 30 since this ionzing unit, being substantially larger than the ionizing unit 15, will require'substantially greater amounts of current. The ionizing unit 40 operates in the same manner as the ionizing unit 15 and will, of course, produce proportionately greater amounts of ozone and aran. In other words,

, varying the number of electrodes directly varies the quantity of ozone and aran produced, as would naturally be expected.

Referring now to FIG. 5, the large industrial ionizer comprises a housing 60 divided by a central horizontal longitudinal wall 61 into an upper compartment 62 and a lower compartment 63. The back wall 64 carries a horizontally-extending guide 66, similar to guide 14 of the ionizer of FIG. 1, attached in any suitable manner, as by spot welding. An ionizing unit 67 is mounted on the guide 66 by a track attached to the unit in a manner identical to the mounting of unit 15 on its guide 14. Adjacent one end of the guide is a spring stop 65, spot welded to the back Wall 64, which, in inserting or removing the ionizing unit, is forced down by the track carried by the unit when the unit is positively pulled past it. This restriction of movement of the ionizing unit insures that it will not accidentally slip from the guide.

The ionizing unit 67 is similar to the ionizing unit 40 of FIGS. 1 to 3, but contains seven electrodes. Alternate electrodes, beginning with an outer electrode, are grounded to the casing of the ionizing unit. The remaining electrodes are connected by stainless steel bus bars to a single stainless steel bus bar 71 which protrudes from an open end of the casing and projects into the open socket' of an elongated, cup-shaped insulating member 72 formed of a suitable dielectric material, such as glass. The member 72 is supported and positioned by an angle plate 73, one flange of which has an opening encircling and holding the member, while the other flange is attached to the back wall of the housing in any suitable manner as by spot-welds 74. A bolt 76 passes through an opening in the back or base of the insulating member, with the head of the bolt lying inside the member 72. A spring 77 is positioned and held inside the member 72 by the head of the bolt which overlies its end and makes electrical contact therewith. The other end of the spring resiliently and electrically engages the end of bus bar 71 in the member 72, the end of the bus bar being looped back upon itself to form a looped portion of sufficient width to span the engaging end of the spring. One end of a wire 78 is looped about the protruding end of the bolt and is secured thereto by nuts 79. This wire passes through an insulating bushing 81, located in an opening in the longitudinal wall 61, and is attached to the secondary terminal 82 of transformer 83 by bolts 84. To the primary terminals 86 of transformer 83 are attached the ends of the Wires in line 87 as by bolts. Line 87 passes through an insulated bushing 88 located in the end wall of housing 60 and to remotely located control panel 91. Control panel 91 has a switch 92 to turn the ionizer on and ofif, and a rheostat knob and associated rheostat 93 to vary the electrical power supplied to the transformer and thus to the ionizing unit. A power cord 94 connects the rheostat and switch to a conventional volt, 60 cycle source of power through plug 96. Also electrically connected to the transformer primary terminals 86 are the ends of the wires within line 97. Line 97 passes through an insulating bushing 98 located in an opening in longitudinal wall 61 and is electrically connected to an electric fan 101. The fan 101 is supported,

through bolts 104, by vertical bars 103 bolted to the housing. The end of the housing 60 adjacent to the fan is shaped to protrude outwardly behind the fan and to receive a filter element 103. The end of the housing 60 directly opposite this protrusion also protrudes outwardly and is closed by a louvered element 169. Energization of fan 1191 causes air to be drawn through filter element 1418 and the filtered air to be blown through the ionizing unit 67 and out through the louvered end 109.

On the wall of the housing directly opposite the wall 64, which wall is not shown in the drawing due to the vertical section presentation of the apparatus, is another ioniz ng unit 67 (FIG. 6) lying directly opposite ionizing unit 67. This ionizing unit is attached to the wall opposite wall 64 in a manner identical to the attachment of ion generator 67 to wall 64, and is also attached to the secondary terminal 111 of transformer 83 by wire 112 in a manner identical to the attachment of ionizing unit 67 to the transformer secondary terminal 82.

As shown in FIG. 6, the center of the secondary of the transformer is grounded to the housing and the ends of the secondary are each connected to the alternate insulated electrodes of the separate ionizing units 67 and 67'. The electrical circuit of the secondary is completed by the ground connection of the other electrodes of the ionizing unit. Thus, an electric potential is supplied by the secondary of the transformer to both ionizing units 67 and 67.

A removable hood 113 covers a longitudinal opening 114- in the top of housing 61 and is attached to the housing 60 by a screw 115. Removal of the hood permits the ionizing unit and associated apparatus within the upper compartment 62 of the housing to be inspected, tested and replaced if necessary. Also attached to the top of the housing are eye bolts 116 which serve as convenient lifting means for the ionizer and as a convenient attachment point for the ionizer should it be desired to suspend it. A louvered opening 117 is provided in the end wall of the lower compartment to permit outside air to how past transformer 83 to ventilate and cool it. To the bottom of the housing are attached feet 118 which support the housing.

In operation, switch 92 is closed to supply alternating current from power cord 94 to energize fan 161 and the primary of the transformer 33. This energizes the secondary of the transformer producing an electric potential between adjacent electrodes of the ionizing unit to ionize the oxygen of the air blown past the units and to form ozone and aran in substantial amounts. The power supplied to the primary of the transformer may be varied by varying the setting of rheostat 93 to vary the electric potential produced by the secondary between adjacent electrodes of the unit to vary the amount of ozone and aran produced.

It has been found that the opposite sides of the tubular wire mesh electrodes of the ionizing units 15, 4h, 67 and 67 should be at least one-eighth of an inch apart in order to produce substantial amount of aran. The sides of these itubular electrodes preferably are one-half of an inch apart, for maximum production of ozone and aran. While the ends of the electrodes are shown as being inwardly and reversely bent upon themselves to engage each other at the opposite side of the electrode, they may be simply brought together and connected in any convenient fashion such as by welding or binding.

The size of the transformer will be varied to suit the different size ionizing units, the larger the unit the larger will be the size of the transformer required. While the particular output voltage of the transformer is not critical, the transformer will ordinarily be capable of producing a voltage between adjacent electrodes of between 5000 and 8000 volts. While thi will be an alternating voltage, a direct voltage of similar magnitude may be used.

The gauge of the stainless steel wire mesh, which is not particularly critical, can be varied to suit the ionizing unit. However, the size of the gauge or mesh openings determines to some extent the amount of ozone and aran h produced by the unit. Accordingly, for practical purposes, a gauge of less than six mesh spaces per inch would not be used.

While I do not desire to be limited to any theory of operation, it is believed that the smooth path for current flow around the sides of the tubular electrodes, in addition to the shape and hollow configuration of the electrodes, and the space between the sides of the respective electrodes causes substantial amounts of aran to be produced. It has been found that if the electrodes are not hollow, no aran is produced, but only ozone, and that is produced in lesser amounts.

In operation, the ionizer was found to produce substantially no impurities, such as oxides of nitrogen. This is believed to be due, at least in part, to the configuration of the electrodes, to the use of stainless steel exclusively in the ionizer, to the use of natural mica as the dielectric between the electrodes, and to the low temperature at which the ionizer may be operated.

Various changes may be made in the details of construction of the ionizer herein described without departing from the invention or sacrificing any of the advantages thereof, the scope of the invention being set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An ionizer comprising a plurality of hollow, flattened, electrodes, each electrode being a self-supporting single tube of wire mesh, all of said electrodes arranged in junta-position, the opposite sides of each electrode being spaced from one another, dielectric means separating each electrode from the other, and means whereby an electrical potential may be established between said electrodes to create an electrical discharge.

2. An ionizer as set forth in claim 1 which includes a stainless steel casing enclosing said electrodes, said casing being open to the atmosphere.

3. An ionizer as set forth in claim 1 in which said plurality of electrodes are of an odd number.

4. An ionizer as set forth in claim 1 in which the dielectric means separating the electrodes is natural mica.

5. An ionizer as set forth in claim 1 in which the dielectric means separating the electrodes is glass.

6. An ionizer comprising a plurality of flattened, hollow, tubular, wire-mesh electrodes formed of a substantially rectangular piece of wire mesh, the opposite end portions of which are reversely bent, and are inwardly and reversely folded to form a pair of loops lying in edgeatoedge relationship, all of said electrodes arranged in juxtaposition, the opposite sides of said electrodes being spaced from one another, dielectric means separating the electrodes from one another, and means whereby an electric potential may be established between said electrodes to create an electric discharge.

7. An ionizer as et forth in claim 6 in which said loops are of substantially equal dimensions.

8. An ionizer as set forth in claim 6 which includes a stainless steel casing enclosing said electrodes, said casing being open to the atmosphere.

9. An ionizer as set fonth in claim 6 in which said plurality of electrodes are of an odd number.

10. An ionizer as set forth in claim 6 in which the dielectric means separating the electrodes is natural mica.

11. An ionizer as set forth in claim 6 in which the dielectric means separating the electrodes is glass.

12. An ionizer comprising a casing, a plurality of flattened, hollow, tubular, wire-rncsh electrodes, arranged within said casing, formed of a substantially rectangular piece of wire mesh, the opposite end portions of which are reversely bent, and are inwardly and reversely folded to form a pair of loops lying in edgeato-edge relationship, the opposite sides of said electrodes being spaced from one another, dielectric mean separating the electrodes from one another, a first wire bound to a pair of said loops of at least one electrode, a second wire bound to a pair of said loops of at least two alternate electrodes and connected to the opposite sides of said casing, and means whereby an electrical potential may be established between said electrodes to create an electric discharge.

13. An ionizer as set forth in claim 12 in which said loops are of substantially equal dimensions.

14. An ionizer as set forth in claim 12 in which said casing is open to the atmosphere.

15. An ionizer as set forth in claim 12 including a metallic housing enclosing said electrodes and casing, and means removably attaching and grounding said casing to said housing.

16. An ionizer as set forth in claim 12 in which said plurality of electrodes is of an odd number.

17. An ionizer as set forth in claim 12 in which said side of said electrodes are spaced about one-half inch.

18. An ionizer as set forth in claim 12 in which the dielectric means separating the electrodes is natural mica.

19. An ionizer as set forth in claim 6 in which the dielectric means separating the electrodes is glass.

20. An ionizer comprising a housing, a plurality of flattened, tubular, stainless steel wire-mesh electrodes, of an odd number arranged in said housing, each electrode being in the form of a pair of resilient, electrically conneoted loops lying in edge-to-edge relationship, opposite sides of each of said electrodes being spaced approximately one-half inch, natural mica dielectric means separating the electrodes, a stainless steel casing enclosing said electrodes, the ends of said casing being open to permit passage of air therethrough, a first wire bound to one pair of said loops of at least one electrode, a second Wire bound to a pair of aid loops of at least two alternate electrodes and connected to the opposite sides of said'cas ing a track attached to the inner side of a wall of said housing, a runner attached to the outer side wall of said casing and engaging said track, means to restrict the movement of said runner along said track, and means whereby an electrical potential may be established between said electrodes to create an electrical discharge.

21. An ionizer comprising a casing, a plurality of fiattened, hollow, tubular, wire-mesh electrodes, arranged within said casing formed of a substantially rectangular piece of wire-mesh, the opposite end portions of which are reversibly bent and are inwardly and reversibly folded to form a pair of loops lying in edge-eto-edge relationship, the opposite sides of said electrodes being spaced from one another, dielectric means separating the electrodes from one another, a wire bound to a pair of said loops of at least one electrode, a pair of wires each bound to a pair of loops of at least two alternate electrodes at each side of each said alternate electrode and connected to the opposite sides of the casing, and mean whereby an electrical potential may be established between said electrodes to create an electric discharge.

References Cited by the Examiner FOREIGN PATENTS 606,906 8/48 Great Britain.

JOHN H. MACK, Primary Examiner. WINSTON A. DOUGLAS, Examiner. 

6. AN IONIZER COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF FLATTENED, HOLLOW, TUBULAR, WIRE-MESH ELECTRODES FORMED OF A SUBSTANTIALLY RECTANGULAR PIECE OF WIRE MESH, THE OPPOSITE ENND PORTIONS OF WHICH ARE REVERSELY BENT, AND ARE INWARDLY AND REVERSELY FOLDED TO FORM A PAIR OF LOOPS LYING IN EDGE-TOEDGE RELATIONSHIP, ALL OF SAID ELECTRODES ARRANGED IN JUXTAPOSITION, THE OPPOSITE SIDES OF SAID ELECTRODES BEING SPACED FROM ONE ANOTHER, DIELECTRIC MEANS SEPARATING THE ELECTRODES FROM ONE ANOTHER, AND MEANS WHEREBY AN ELECTRIC POTENTIAL MAY BE ESTABLISHED BETWEEN SAID ELECTRODES TO CREATE AN ELECTRIC DISCHARGE. 